The St. Regis Dubai Downtown: Service very, very far from the brand’s standards

After a flight from London that went by very quickly, we arrived in Dubai and then at the hotel we had chosen, the St. Regis Downtown Dubai.

It is a new hotel from St. Regis. The hotel was already part of the Marriott portfolio under the Renaissance brand, but underwent a total renovation for more than a year before reopening under the American group’s luxury brand.

As a reminder, here is the route followed:

#TypeReview
1LoungeThe Emirates Lounge, London Heathrow
2FlightEmirates Business, London Heathrow – Dubai International, Airbus A380
3HotelThe St. Regis Dubai Downtown
4VisitAt the top, SKY, Burj Khalifa
5VisitExpo 2020
6VisitLouvre Abu Dhabi
7RestaurantMartabaan by Oberoi, Emirates Palace
8VisitThe Great Mosque of Abu Dhabi
9VisitDubai Aquarium
10RestaurantL’Atelier de Joël Robuchon, Dubai
11LoungeThe Emirates Lounge Business, Dubai Portes B
12FlightEmirates Business, Dubai International – London Heathrow, Airbus A380
Today’s itinerary

Booking

I booked the room a few weeks before my arrival in the property. This will be done for a little over 250€ per night.

In addition, I requested the use of a Suite Night Award for this 7 nights stay.
Despite the availability of the requested suite, it was not approved.

Nevertheless, after several email exchanges with the reception (difficult communication), I managed to get an upgrade in the same category, the Signature Suite.

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Arrival

We arrive in the middle of the night at Dubai airport.

Having booked with miles, the Limousine is not included in the price of the ticket. So I had reserved a car with the hotel.

Our driver is waiting for us at the arrivals.

We arrive after about twenty minutes at the hotel after a trip in a Tesla.

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We are taken care of by the receptionist, a French woman.

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The latter proceeds with the check-in formalities and we choose breakfast as the Ambassador benefit. The procedure is not particularly courteous, and is done in a cold way.

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Our luggage will be delivered to the room a few minutes later.

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The upgrade is confirmed and we are on our way to the elevators, escorted by our receptionist.

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Room

Our suite was located on the 18th floor of the hotel. Although we are on a smoking floor, we will never smell the cigarette smell, at any time.

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The entrance leads immediately to a huge living/dining room and office area.

To the right is a bathroom, probably allowing you to receive guests without having them enter your sleeping area.

Then comes a large bar with a central islet.

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A separate kitchen is also available to host a party.

A large desk withits back to the view of the Burj Khalifa is present, as well as a huge corner sofa.

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On the other side, the night space begins with a very spacious dressing room which will allow us to settle comfortably for the 7 nights of our stay.

Then comes the huge bathroom, with its separate toilet.

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The shower is double jet, a large bathtub also dominates the bathroom in the center.

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Two wash basins also allow the bathroom to be used in parallel.

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Finally, the bedroom is very spacious too, with its king size bed, a beautiful daybed, and a swinging seat near the large bay window to admire the landscape.

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To finish, a video tour:

Hotel facilities

The hotel is equipped with a fitness room, a spa and an outdoor pool.

Fitness room

We won’t be using the fitness room during our stay, but it is very spacious, has a nice view of Downtown Dubai, and a trainer is available.

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Pool

The outdoor pool is very, very nice. However, it seems to us extremely small to meet the needs of a 150-rooms hotel, but we will see in the future.

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We will make good use of this pool until the very last minute, as we will havea nice soak in the jacuzzi before heading back to London.

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Note that the service is slow, but rather personalized, with our waiter remembering our drink choices from day to day.

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Restaurants

Restoration is undoubtedly the weak point of the St. Regis I am afraid that this excludes it from the category of luxury hotels.

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We did not try the French brasserie located on the mezzanine, but only the main restaurant, Basta, located on the first floor. And it’s a disaster.

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Basta – Breakfast service

The breakfast service is rather messy. If a hostess places you, the waiters’ work is totally disorganized and you have to “catch” one to order.

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The buffet is of decent quality, but nothing like what you would expect in a St. Regis. The breads are of average quality, as are the hot options.

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The service improvedat the end of our stay, but not the food. Shame.

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Room service

One evening, we decided to order room service… And it was the wrong order that came in!

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Basta – Dinner service

Honestly, nothing to say about the service… But what about the tagliatelle carbonara dish ordered by my wife… It was not a carbonara! For an Italian restaurant in such a prestigious establishment, one would have thought that the recipe was genuine… But no, it was the usual recipe of the students at the university with a whole pot of cream poured on the pasta… The dish was obviously changed, but the manager came to us to ask what was wrong and to justify himself on the recipe.

Shit, I’m half Italian, and I know there’s no cream in real carbonara!

Departure

The formalities of departure were laborious, the bad invoice was brought to me at first, then, the culmination, the car we booked was not there... After 15 minutes of waiting, and the threat of asking for a refund and then ordering an Uber, we decided to take another car of a higher category… Incredible!

Conclusion

While the hard product, including the lobby and rooms, is beautiful, the service needs to be greatly improved to be on par with a St. Regis. Moreover, the rating on the Marriott website is unforgiving!

Olivier Delestre-Levai
Olivier Delestre-Levai
Olivier has been into airline blogging since 2010. First a major contributor to the FlyerTalk forum, he created the FlyerPlan website in July 2012, and writes articles with a major echo among airline specialists. He now co-runs the TravelGuys blog with Bertrand, focusing on travel experience and loyalty programs.
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